Jeffrey M. Duban

Jeffrey M. Duban, an ardent classicist, art devotee, and classical music presenter, grew up in Boston, where he attended the prestigious Boston Public Latin School. He began studying Latin in the seventh grade and Greek in the tenth, followed by Old Testament Hebrew and Sanskrit in college. A graduate of Brown University, he obtained his PhD in classics from The Johns Hopkins University and briefly entered university teaching. Changing course, he earned his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Fordham University and devoted himself, for the next twenty-two years, to defending academic freedom in college settings large and small. Following retirement, he returned to his first love—ancient Greek, publishing The Lesbian Lyre (2016) and The Shipwreck Sea (2019). Inspirational visits to the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Syros, and Crete further cemented his determination to publish Homer’s Iliad (2024), which he translated classically—critically, free of colloquialisms, and truer to Homer’s own idiom and elevated diction. Moreover, Jeffrey’s varied musical interests have led to a collaboration with contemporary Greek-Canadian composer Constantine Caravassilis on his double album, From Sappho’s Lyre. In addition to liner notes, commentary, and translations of Sappho, the album includes “5 Duban Songs” set to Jeffrey’s own poetry, published in The Shipwreck Sea. Jeffrey and his wife Jayne, his beloved editor and collaborator, live in New York City.